Shadows of the Ascendancy

Welcome to the “Shadow of the Ascendancy” homepage. This Star Wars Saga Ed. home-brew game takes place in 13 ABY and is primarily set is Chiss Ascendancy space (hence the name). This game has currently started its second year and has walked it’s players from 1st level to 9th level (as of the creation of this page). Originally designed as a “learning” game to teach our home group how to play Saga Edition Star Wars, this game has evolved into a full out campaign. The overarching theme of my game is a slight departure from the normal game wherein a player is usually only concerned with their own character. In this game, i encourage players to share their personal stories/correspondence and I in-turn give glimpses into NPCs and events that the PCs are not privy to in order to give the players the sense that they are watching a Star Wars Movie (albeit rated R version as you will see).

My game is set in the Iou System on Iou-7, a Gas Giant that serves as a focal point for a good portion of the campaign. Despite its gaseous makeup, Iou-7 has a abundance of rare metals traveling along strange internal currents within the planet itself. During the reign of the Emperor, the Empire commissioned a small R&D corporation called Transtar to utilize its unusual mining techniques and technology in an attempt to supply the Empire with these strange materials. Thus the mining station IouM-1 was established. The Empire also supplied much of the workforce in this off-the-beaten-path system, using “indentured servants”, basically slaves obtained from equal parts; dissident races and criminals from across the Galaxy.

The game is broken into 5 acts with the PCs being currently immersed in Act 4. The Acts represent major story lines with each session being noted as a scene (so Act 3 Scene 4 is the 4th actual sit-down game in the 3rd Act).

Shadows of the Ascendancy

Shadows of the Ascendancy
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Also, as a last additional note, Wrrlrirr is also actually really PISSEDOFF and frustrated by the ssi ruuvi. They have taken thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of lives, and twisted them into something horrible. Jace keeps his emotions in check. Tyr and Keet find peace with the Force. Xan has military discipline. Wrrlrirr has none of those; instead, he has a Wookiees rage at an enemy that is horrible and immoral. While the p’w’ecks willingly fight for the ssi ruuvi, they might find themselves on the receiving end of some of that rage.

I didn’t mean for Wrrlrirr to come off as that aggressive, he is mainly just strongly concerned. Most of the recent actions of the party actually meet his approval, I think it’s just some of the methods that he questions. Not objects, just questions. For the p’w’ecks, he absolutely would not have killed or harmed them without evidence or proof that they might betray us. Given that there is none, in his mind they should have been treated with a little more suspicion but definitely not hostility. He would consider it reasonable to detain them while the war is still waging, but would be 100% in support of keeping them living comfortably until the war had ended, at which point he might even personally help them establish a colony.

Just because Wrrlrirr doesn’t trust somebody, doesn’t mean they should be put to death. In that way, I feel like he is not at all being binary. He is reserving his judgment of the p’w’ecks, as he would reserve it of any other beings he encountered, until he could form an opinion based on character content and trustworthiness. In his view, the group is being extremely forgiving to an alien race which are willing slaves. They are brainwashed, it is true, and they do deserve the chance for freedom. However, unlike the unwilling Wookiee slaves, these p’w’eck are often convinced that they must serve their masters even when taken beyond the reach of said masters. That makes them extremely dangerous and possibly treacherous. It is a completely different situation, although there are some parallels.

Also try to keep in mind that Wrrlrirr grew up as a slum child on Coruscant. Life was not easy on him and so sometimes his judgment will be harsh. When you grow surrounded by people that might betray and kill you just so they can eat that week, you get a little paranoid, even cynical. I’m trying to bring him more to life, and his view will contrast sometimes. When all is said and done, though, he is loyal to the group, who are his friends, and to the Chiss, who are his employers. He will follow, but you can expect him to chime in with a contrasting view more often.

(All OOC) Given that Wrrlrrir thinks the group has continuously acted with emotional bullshit first, I have to wonder what his choices or actions would have been in many of the recent situations, had he had total latitude to make the call. It is often easy to be critical of others when one is not making the call, or when not offering a voice to the vote. The tone of the dialog above and the seemingly binary view of morality displayed by Wrrlrrir, I have to wonder if some of his calls would have aligned with the group at all. I’d venture a guess that we would have no living P’w’eck allies at this point, as it is pretty clear that Wrrlrrir doesn’t trust them AT ALL. I wonder what his opinions would have been regarding the fate of all the wookiee slaves that built the Death Star had they been captured by the rebels. Should they have been killed because they worked for the Empire? Were they brainwashed and defeated by the Empire in such a way that they would crawl back to their masters just for table scraps and a chance at not being killed?

I don’t recall any strong opposition to anything the party has done recently. I’d like to think that if there had been strong opinions, we would have stopped to listen to them all and talk it through. (As we have done before).

It definitely felt like one side was attacking, one side was neutral, and one side was absent ;)

Anyhow, it was a very thought-provoking read and I will be sure to keep it out of player knowledge as much as possible.

A Question of Tactics and SubterfugeFrom Bobby/Wrrlrrir:Kevin and I had an interesting conversation, part roleplay and part ooc, about the goings on of the last session. I’m trying to get more into Wrrlrirr’s head and give him more of a voice; for a long time he has watched from the sidelines through most roleplay because he was the newcomer and didn’t feel it was his place, but now he considers himself more of an equal. We decided it might be neat to share this so hopefully the group can get an idea for Wrrlrirr’s concerns and Jace’s attitude about the choices we are making. Feel free to chime in, but we kind of played this from the perspective of Wrrlrirr approaching Jace in private to voice his concerns.

Wrrlrrir: I’ve got some…concerns I’d like to talk about. Can we really trust these p’w’ecks? It seems like some of the others are more than happy to give 100% of their trust to these aliens. The fact is that they are known to be fanatically loyal, and completely brainwashed.

Jace:To think we trust these p’w’ecks is a foolish notion. But, regardless, we must place our trust in them. It is a risk I am willing to take, because it is a risk we have to take.

W: Has the idea of them double crossing us occurred to anybody else in our squad? We assume that they won’t go back to the Ssi Ruuvi because they would be immediately killed. They might be spared if they could earn their way back into their masters’ good graces by delivering them a planet, setting a trap, providing intelligence…any of a number of ways. This is a real concern! We just found out for certain that the enemy has spies in our ranks. How do we know that these “defectors” aren’t more moles moving into place?

J: And they will be spared if we can convince them to truly escape the grasp of their would-be masters. We have to weigh the risk against the reward in this situation. Already they have given us a droid, which the Chiss may be able to exploit and finally gain the footing they need for Cyber-war. Beyond that, they’ve been nothing but cooperative with their limited knowledge.

W: Control over a droid with an override code that the enemy knows and infantry-level intelligence are hardly much of a boon. I think we could easily capture more technology and prisoners if some of our comrade’s methods were a bit more…precise.

J: In this war, we might not be able to win through military strength alone. This war is unlike anything we’ve fought before. Do you plan on taking down the entire Ssi Ruuvi fleet with your blaster or your fighter? If we can turn them on one another we might save millions of lives. It might be our only chance to win. Would you rather we slaughter all of them?

W: No! I’m arguing for moderation, for thinking our actions through. These P’w’ecks are prisoners of war. They should not be promised freedom as soon as we get them off planet. They must be detained and processed in the same way that the Ascendancy would treat any other prisoners. If an enemy throws down it’s weapon and submits, this should be our course of action.

J: I fear the situation only allows for absolutes. We have no time for moderation, we either trust them or kill them. We’ve trusted them so far, and they played an instrumental role in destroying a station and gathering vital intelligence. Without it we might not have made it this far. What if this tech is instrumental in conducting cyber war? What if one of the p’w’eck that surrendered today is the hero that inspires a mass revolt? While your distrust is founded, you must admit, any p’w’eck, thus far, has done nothing but at least attempt to help us…or kill itself. I have no reason to think these things, by and large, are duplicitous. These things want to be saved, under all the brainwashing, they want to be free of their Sss’ruvi masters…

W: What if they send word back to their masters that we are weak-willed and easily fooled, willing to accept as many p’w’eck “defectors” as they want to send? They have shown a capacity for treachery, when they used their superweapon on our battle cruisers. If they catch word of how easily they can infiltrate our numbers and have sentimental Jedi promise protection and freedom, they WILL abuse it. Don’t forget that Tyr threatened your MINISTER OF DEFENSE because he rightly put the safety of IOUM and the Ascendancy above the personal safety of a few illegal stowaways who could easily have been moles.

J: I will admit, it is distressing our team is so reckless and driven by emotions…wrath one moment, and pity the next.. We should consider ourselves lucky that it is the even-tempered Ascendancy, not any member of our team, which decides what to do with our prisoners. Despite the promises of freedom, it should go without saying—-this is galactic war; deals can, and will, be altered for the safety of the Chiss.

W: Hah! Don’t forget that Xan, Tyr and Keet are more than happy to break the laws of your government, go behind your back, and smuggle those same refugees away from the Ascendancy. Tyr is naive enough to think that a Jedi Master will go out of his way, during the middle of a galactic war, to possibly save three low-rank guards from paralysis. Keet is idealistic and Xan is blinded by his drive to free the p’w’ecks from slavery. Think of how much your people might have learned from them, or how easily they could have been funneling information back to the Ssi Ruuvi. You might willfully ignore them smuggling those p’w’ecks off of IOUM but you can’t say that you are totally ignorant or in support of those actions.

J: Well, as long as the Ascendancy finds their worth outweighs the burden they cause, they will be allowed a certain amount of latitude. Do you think the Ascendancy hasn’t taken notice of YOUR allegiances?

W: I may have an affiliation with the Empire, yes. You and many others might see it as a dying force for evil, which once ruled with a sinister and iron grip. Things change. I see an ally desperate enough to adapt, atone for its mistakes. My very acceptance is proof to me that they are willing to revise their policies for the better in order to survive. They might be changing for the wrong reasons, but that is often the case in my experience. History is written by the victors, and don’t forget that some of the greatest heroes in recent history began as cutthroats. They only wound up on the good side because the alternative was death.

J: So then, what if the Hero of this war is one of the very P’Wecks we captured, whose only alternative was a quick death? What if they have the capacity to change, adapt. We took a risk with you, Wrrlrirr…and I suspect we still do, and yet you avail. Carrying more weight in future of the Ascendancy than many of our highest houses.

W: The chance is there, yes. Again, I’m not advocating merciless slaughter. In my experience there’s a fine line to walk, right down the middle between callus insensitivity and idealistic bullshit. Right now, I think we’re straying to close to the bullshit. Wookiee noses are more sensitive than most, and I really don’t like the smell.

J:Of course, Wrrlrrir, there is a line…but we not have the time to tip-toe the razor’s edge of that line. We must fall to one side. You’ve made your case, and I’ve made mine. I didn’t hire you to court the enemy. Should a creature seem deserving of death, you, along with any other member of the team, have the authority to kill or incapacitate as you see fit. There is not time for judge and jury. I only ask that you realize each enemy is a potential ally. Give them a chance to prove their worth.

W: And I only ask that they prove their worth before being given trust or promises of protection. The new prisoners have given up nothing. Their choice was to die on unconsecrated ground or submit. They might be brainwashed but they aren’t stupid. If they prove loyal, great. If not, then they might just be waiting for knowledge that this planet is consecrated before stabbing us in the back, or they might integrate themselves and offer aid only to earn our trust and betray us later. The droid they “gave” us has an override code which the ssi ruuvi know. At any point it could reactivate and begin slaughtering the scientists who try to study it. I’ll keep what you’ve said in mind, and try to give them a chance.

J: And I assure you, I will not soon forget what these creatures have done to my people. But I cannot allow pity or emotion guide me here. Yes, for the time, I must put aside my wrath and treat each creature we come across as a potential ally…that is what I do…but I assure you, Wrrlrrir, should they take one misstep…prove to me that they are not worthy of Chiss concert…every promise will be dissolved, and every gift retaken. If they do not prove helpful, and continue to lay siege to my people, I assure you, no single p’w’eck, Sss’ruvi, nor any other threat to the Ascendancy will be left standing in Our wake.